Linguistics in the News Archive
According to the Associated Press, linguists say they have determined that a unique sign language, possibly dating back to the 1800s or earlier, is being used in Hawaii, marking the first time in 80 years a previously unknown language — spoken or signed — has been documented in the U.S.
The National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) began in 1957-58 to collect data continuously on the number and characteristics of individuals receiving research doctoral degrees from all accredited U.S. institutions.
When physicists look at language, what do they see?
For the five experts in physics who authored a recent paper in the journal Scientific Reports, language looks very much like a gas, with words bouncing around like particles.
The 73 Member organizations of the Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies, representing 300,000 professionals in language education, research and development, translation, interpreting, localization, and globalization, applaud the D
Human behavior is Facebook’s business.
Its success is based on understanding how people are wired: how they present themselves, what they remember, whom they trust, and now, how they seek information.
The identity of a mysterious patient who helped scientists pinpoint the brain region responsible for language has been discovered, researchers report.
After a 2002 survey of the Oklahoma Cherokee population found that no one under 40 spoke conversational Cherokee, the Cherokee Nation saw an opportunity to use technology to encourage everyday use of the language amon
One of the greatest lexicographic enterprises of the 20th century has now reached its goal, with publication of the sixth and final volume by Harvard University Press.
An Aboriginal language crushed under the weight of European colonisation in Australia has been revived. The Kaurna language once thrived and was spoken by the original inhabitants of Adelaide. But it began to disappear from daily use in South Australia as early as the 1860s.
Section Z (Linguistics and Language Sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is open to everyone with an interest in human language and how it works, including:
Since at least the Middle Ages, philosophers and philologists have dreamed of curing natural languages of their flaws by constructing entirely new idioms according to orderly, logical principles.
On a Spanish island, an ancient whistling language that once seemed to be dying out is now undergoing a revival.
Speaking two languages can actually help offset some effects of aging on the brain, a new study has found. Researchers tested how long it took participants to switch from one cognitive task to another, something that’s known to take longer for older adults, said the lead researcher.
In its 23rd annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “hashtag” as the word of the year for 2012. Hashtag refers to the practice used on Twitter for marking topics or making commentary by means of a hash symbol (#) followed by a word or phrase.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAA) will meet in Boston February 14-18 at the Hynes Convention Center. An enormous range of topics on science and science education will be presented.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $1.9 million to the University of Alaska Fairbanks linguistics program.
Home to around 800 different languages, New York is a delight for linguists, but also provides a rich hunting ground for those trying to document languages threatened with extinction. It is not just a city where many languages live, it is also a place where languages go to die, the final de
Words like “organism” and “photosynthesis” — to say nothing of more obscure and harder-to-spell terms — have no single widely accepted equivalent in sign language. Crowdsourcing projects in both American Sign Language and British Sign Language are under way at several universities, enabling